Sean Meriwether's Blog: The Green Economist, page 14

50th Anniversary of the Pride Parade

NY Dispatch Day 105: Today is the 50th anniversary of the Pride Parade, which marked the 1 year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. They did not want the momentum to fade or for recently liberated people to be forced back into the dark corners where society preferred us to live, so they marched as a community to remain visible. One of the original organizers of the parade was a bisexual, polyamorist activist, Brenda Howard. She was by no means alone in this venture, but she has earned her place ...

Celebrating 5 Years of Marriage Equality

NY Dispatch Day 103: On this day in 2015 the Supreme Court of the United States decided Obergefell v. Hodges. At the time same-sex marriage was legal in 36 states, but not the others. In this case, Jim Obergefell had married John Arthur in Maryland, but their state of residence, Ohio, did not recognize their union. Mr. Arthur was terminally ill and wanted Mr. Obergefell to be recognized as his surviving spouse on his death certificate. This would have been taken for granted in a heterosexual mar...

The Arctic is Melting

NY Dispatch Day 102: Yesterday a colleague posed a question, with so much going on in the world what critical stories are we ignoring? There are too many to list here, but one that should be raising alarms is yesterday’s news from Siberia. Towns above the Arctic Circle measured temperatures over 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit). This was not an anomaly, it is part of a frightening trend. The permafrost is melting, which is not only releasing the tons of methane gas that had been trapp...

The Green New Deal, Job Creator

NY Dispatch Day 101: One of the victims of COVID-19 has been our fossil-fuel driven, exponential-growth-at-any-cost economy. Last March most businesses around the world were shuttered in an attempt to slow the transmission rate of this virulent virus. The impact was immediate. Consumption, travel, and tourism fell off a cliff. Oil prices were already weakened by reduced demand and over production and swiftly nosedived. Things are starting to rebound, but as we begin to step out of this financial...

100 Days in Quarantineland

NY Dispatch Day 100: My first day of working from home was March 16, 2020, when New York City went into lockdown. Just the week before I had attended Soundheim’s Company on Broadway, snarkily posting a comment overheard in the sold out theater, “So much for social distancing! #NoFearCovid.” The irony. The last thing we should have now is company.

I had done extensive research on pandemics for a novel I was working on and was prepared for the news. On the disaster-porn section of my bookshelf is ...

Complete the US 2020 Census

NY Dispatch Day 99: Every decade we commit to the massive undertaking of counting every person living in the United States. The information gathered is used to determine the number of seats allocated to each state in the US House of Representatives, redistricting, funds going to schools, healthcare, infrastructure, and social services… and that is just the government. The data are also used by private and public sectors in a plethora of ways. This year’s tally will stand until the next roll call...

Happy Parents’ Day

NY Dispatch Day 98: Many people are finding creative ways in our quarantined world to celebrate Father’s Day. Today is not joyful for everyone, including many LGBTQ+ people who may have strained relationships with their parents. Many of us develop our own families, choose our mentors, and deepen relationships that can be just as rewarding, complex, and challenging as our biological ones.

I was a child when my parents divorced and my father became a diminishing presence in my life. There were man...

Hate Crimes & Hope for Change

NY Dispatch Day 97: I recently watched The Laramie Project and was reminded of another unspeakable murder that sparked a movement. Matthew Shepard, a 21 year old kid who could have been your best friend’s younger brother, was severely beaten, tortured, tied to a stake, and left for dead on October 6, 1998. His attackers were local boys. His murderer tried to use the “gay panic defense,” in which the defendant claims temporary insanity or self-defense as justification to attack—with lethal force—...

Juneteenth & Strange Fruit

NY Dispatch Day 96: Weeks of global protests sparked by the police murder of George Floyd are finally making cracks in the wall of systemic racism. A radical conversation and shift in public opinion is taking place. Colin Kaepernick taking a knee to protest the oppression of African Americans has become the symbolic gesture of support. Marketing which has long been deemed racist is being removed from store shelves. The Confederate flag is finally recognized as a symbol of racism. Juneteeth, whic...

Juneteeth & Strange Fruit

NY Dispatch Day 96: Weeks of global protests sparked by the police murder of George Floyd are finally making cracks in the wall of systemic racism. A radical conversation and shift in public opinion is taking place. Colin Kaepernick taking a knee to protest the oppression of African Americans has become the symbolic gesture of support. Marketing which has long been deemed racist is being removed from store shelves. The Confederate flag is finally recognized as a symbol of racism. Juneteeth, whic...